There are many websites and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube for sharing certain types of information publicly, but these social network sites are not suited for the secure creation, storage, retrieval, transmission and display of private, copyrighted and/or confidential information which may be needed, on very short notice, in a critical or emergency situation. Individuals are now increasingly requesting to be more active participants in the preparation, ownership, storage and retrieval of their own important documents with regard to legal, financial and healthcare determinations and decisions as well as important public information not otherwise easily available.
ICE is the internationally recognized acronym for In Case of Emergency. There is a significant market opportunity in the preparation, storage and retrieval of Advance Directives containing critical healthcare related information necessary to first responders and other healthcare professionals in emergency or life threatening situations.
The most serious and time sensitive occasions for use of the proprietary Storage Software as a Service (SSaaS) system technology would be quickly obtaining the medical information and/or Advance Directive and making it easily available to first responders and other healthcare professionals in a life threatening situation. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), approximately 1.5 million medication errors occur annually. As a result, people suffer injury or death from mostly preventable prescription mistakes made by doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare professionals tasked with prescribing or dispensing medical drugs. Once the patient has been admitted to a recognized hospital or other healthcare facility, more comprehensive medical information can be accessed in accordance with government and healthcare industry regulations. In 2000, the IOM called for a major national effort to reduce medical errors by 50 percent within 5 years, but progress since then has fallen far short of expectations. Many patients continue to fear, justifiably, that they may be harmed when receiving medical treatment—even at a reputable healthcare facility.
The greatest concerns in providing this information via the SSaaS system technology are how to:
a. Develop a means to permanently and uniquely identify each individual person with a single methodology which provides a secure and easily accessible communications link to the remotely stored medical and/or advanced directive information
b. Maintain material integrity and reduce the risk of damage associated with other methods of permanently integrating infographics for unique identification purposes
c. Develop means to automatically scan the infographics in order to retrieve the remotely stored medical and/or advanced directive information
d. Make the information secure and easily updatable via an accessible communications link
e. Eliminate human error—to insure accuracy, security and timeliness in the retrieval of the remotely stored information
Traditionally, healthcare information and other important documents have been written and stored on hard copy files and/or in electronic archives in one or more different locations. Such storage and retrieval facilities have been marketed by various companies such as Microsoft Health Vault, Google Health, Amazon, Apple and Iron Mountain, as well as major banks and financial institutions, among others, who have relied on their formidable business history and reputation in order to convince and assure potential customers of the long term safety and integrity of their healthcare information and/or other documents. All of this may be true, but these systems are antiquated and usually require the entry of protected user and password identification, which is not always readily available to gain access to the information in an emergency or life threatening situation. In many cases such situations could cause costly, if not catastrophic, delays in receiving proper medical treatment.
Until now these storage and retrieval capabilities have generally been considered adequate; however, in light of modern day technology, personal mobility and travel preferences, their shortcomings have become quite evident. The available information is not always up-to-date, medically accurate or easily accessible and it is now apparent that a critical need exists for a storage and retrieval system that will enable relatives, legal representatives, beneficiaries, first responders and other healthcare professionals to have a rapid and simple means of retrieving individual patient information in emergency situations. In particular, there is an urgent need for remote access to storage and retrieval systems capable of providing individual Advance Directives containing critical healthcare information that will be in compliance with various government and industry rules and regulations such as HIPAA and HITECH, while still being readily available and useful in the analysis and determination of treatment options for individual patients in critical situations. It would also be beneficial for such a database storage and retrieval system to be easily accessible by patients and healthcare providers alike for the purpose of updating the information, and that such information be made available in a form that facilitates quick and easy dissemination and presentation when required.
The Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) is a federal law enacted in 1991 which requires all healthcare providers certified by Medicare and/or Medicaid to inform all adult patients about their rights to accept or refuse medical or surgical treatment and the right to execute an Advance Directive and provide information and assistance in its preparation. An Advance Directive is a written instruction similar to a living will or durable power of attorney for healthcare issues, which is recognized under the laws of all fifty states, relating to the provision of healthcare services when an individual is incapacitated.
A number of different government agencies and industry groups have joined to address the issues related to the creation, ownership, storage, security and dissemination of medical information; however, the various approaches taken have not always been well coordinated and are difficult to access quickly in an emergency situation. The driving forces behind these healthcare initiatives include the need for rapid response in emergency situations, the rising costs of healthcare services, the need for productivity gains and price reductions, government and industry compliance, as well as technological innovations, product liability concerns and customer demand. According to George Hill, an analyst at Leerink Swann, a healthcare investment bank, the market for medical data storage and retrieval systems was between $8 and $10 billion in 2009, the latest year for which such figures are available. The market size is expected to grow dramatically as new government and industry rules and regulations are integrated.
An Advance Directive is a document written before the onset of serious illness, that describes how the subject wants to live life, in one's own words and on one's own terms and/or names someone to make those choices if the subject becomes unable to make informed decisions. All fifty states legally recognize some form of Advance Directive, and SSaaS system technology can be tailored to allow each person to create a document that conforms to the requirements of that individual's state. The majority of states have reciprocity provisions. Even in those states that do not explicitly address the issue, there is a common law and constitutional right to accept or refuse medical treatment that may be broader than the rights identified under the state law. Because an Advance Directive is an expression of one's intent regarding medical treatment, it will influence that healthcare even if a particular instruction might not be enforceable under some circumstances.
Many people struggle to understand the complex legal language and terms typically used in these documents to express how they want their healthcare handled if they become very ill and unable to make those decisions on their own. This may account for the very low rate of completion of Advance Directives among the elderly and the general population at large. SSaaS system technology can be used to make the creation of such documents very simple, since it can be based on images and graphics that most people already understand. When presented in formats which are intuitive, visually and graphically interesting, multi-lingual, easy-to-create and easy-to-understand; it can potentially be used by every adult American regardless of race, religion or national origin—with or without personal assistance.
Typically, people are reluctant to consider their medical choices and decisions; but questions regarding healthcare treatment at the end-of-life are of great concern today, partly because of the increasing ability of medical technology to prolong life and partly because of highly publicized cases, like those of Karen Ann Quinlan and Terri Schiavo, involving comatose patients whose families wanted to withdraw medical treatment. Most people would like to avoid extending personal and family suffering by artificial means if they are in a vegetative state or when there is no hope of recovery. The best way for an individual to retain control in such a situation is to record their preferences for healthcare treatment and share their decisions with their loved ones, family members, physician and clergyman.
SSaaS system technology can be based on well established and readily available hardware and software such as the equipment and technology used for automated check-out at Home Depot, Office Depot and many other large retailers, as well as online document creation and storage product offerings such as Dropbox®, DocuSign (both in San Francisco, Calif.) and EasyIDCard® of Lindenhurst, N.Y. These different components can be combined to provide improved techniques for the creation and rapid retrieval of information at remote locations. Embodiments disclosed herein can utilize an electronic memory storage network, via cloud computing capability, containing the medical information and/or Advanced Directives related to specific users; a permanent infographic symbol providing a link to said medical information and/or Advanced Directive, using portable electronic imaging/reading devices such as smart phones, iPads or other mobile computing devices separate from the memory storage network and accessible via cloud computing capability utilizing a cellular telephone network, wireless computer network or near field communications network capable of retrieving and transmitting the information from the memory storage network via cloud computing capability to an individual situated at the remote location. The systems may further comprise portable electronic imaging/reading devices containing a GPS transmitter/receiver at the remote location such that the GPS coordinates of the remote location are determined and communicated to the electronic memory storage network via cloud computing capability. Once the information has been accessed, a series of email, text and/or telephonic messages can be sent to individuals, relatives and/or legal representatives based on instructions specified in the stored medical information and/or Advance Directives.
The “Memory Medallion” company holds U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,254,666 and 7,395,960, which disclose and claim methods of producing metal medallions with QR codes inscribed thereon. The medallions can be affixed to solid substrates such as tombstones to assist in the retrieval of information about the deceased occupants of the graves. Another company, Making Everlasting Memories, LLC (owned or controlled by SCI) owns a large number of patents and applications concerned with such technology. A representative example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,251 B2, discloses a system and method for archiving records; however, a need persists for systems with an easy to use, template based, GUI which can enable a user to easily scan, create and store information in a cloud storage facility or capability, via the Internet, about a person, animal, place, object or the like and associating such information with a unique infographic symbol such as a QR code. The information could be easily accessed, retrieved, displayed or printed by any Internet connected computer or other previously described mobile computing device.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,741, assigned to “Golden Enterprises,” discloses systems and methods for the storage and retrieval of media information. A need persists for systems which can enable a user of a mobile computing device such as a smart phone to retrieve information about a place, deceased person or the like by using an infographic symbol such as a QR code to access stored information via the Internet. Where such codes are used outdoors and must last for years while exposed to the elements, as on a tombstone, there is a need for marking such codes on substrates in ways which will not allow them to be removed or to deteriorate under ambient conditions.